Day 1: Fire Ant Nuptial Flight with ExoticsLair…
We found queen ants in the bin!
Mikey, come here, like right now!
There’s a lot, you won’t believe.
Oh my God!
Dude!
Look at that!
They’re on the floor.
See look at how many we’ve caught.
That is crazy!
Day 3: One of the fire ant queens actually laid eggs.
“And here she is, in all her glory, the queen fire ant sits caring for a big pile
of eggs.
This queen had already broken off her wings right when we caught her, which can be a good
indicator that she had already mated, but, just so you guys know, there is still a chance
she hadn’t.”
Day 10: UPDATE!
Guys, I have some news to share about the queen fire ant we caught over a week ago.
What I spotted in our queen's test tube left me speechless.
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I’ve been waiting with great anticipation to see if our precious queen fire ant we caught,
that laid eggs in last week’s episode, was showing signs of being successfully fertilized,
in other words whether or not she had mated during the nuptial flight from which we captured
her, or if she was still a virgin queen ant whom we captured too early and was just destined
to die.
Well, I have some good news for you and some bad news that may shock you, and I’ll be
getting to what I spotted in her test tube this week.
This has been an insane past 10 days to say the least!
Alright, AC Family, so the two pieces of news to share with you: I’ll start with the bad
news first.
I peeked into the box of queen fire ants that I had collected and test tubed up on the night
of the nuptial flight and I was totally heart broken to see this.
Eggs totally scattered, and the queen fire ant on her back struggling, with her legs
flailing in attempts to get back up.
It broke my heart to see the queen fire ant look at us, as she was on her way through
the death process.
Sadly, our queen ant here was dying, her pile of eggs scattered about and un-cared for,
both tell-tale signs that she had failed to mate during the great fire ant nuptial flight
from 10 days ago.
I’m sorry, Queen.
You will be gone too soon, but in my heart, I knew that this was just all part of the
sometimes harsh realities of ant life.
You see, not all queen ants successfully mate nor make it to founding full colonies of their
own.
I placed her back into the box with the rest of the queen fire ants who also were on their
way to dying, as none of them had laid eggs and were definitely not mated.
Rest in peace, fire ant queens.
May you all proceed now in peace to the divine land to where all ants fly after their hour
of death.
And now for the good news.
The queen fire ant from last week’s video was not part of that death box.
She’s here.
Alive, healthy, with a much bigger egg pile, and guess what else!
As I looked closer I spotted a larva!
Yay!
One of the eggs had hatched.
This was an amazing sign!
And, AC Family, that’s not all!
After turning her test tube a little, my eyes widened as I spotted the big larvae batch.
Woah!
So many larvae!
Alright, now although this still doesn’t guarantee our Queen Fire Ant here has been
fertilized, as these larvae might turn into males if she isn’t, and yes, if you’re
new to ants, unfertilized eggs become male ants due to the weird intricacies of ant genetics,
and in case you’re wondering, no she can’t mate with her own sons to get fertilized,
but the great news is, seeing all these larvae all organized like this makes me feel a good
85% certain, that our queen fire ant is indeed mated.
Any experienced ant keeper knows that a brood pile that looks like this pretty much certifies
that our queen has successfully mated during her nuptial flight and that a fire ant horde
was soon on the way!
So great!
Haha!
And I scared you for sec there with that first queen ant, didn’t I?
I know!
I was scared at first, too, thinking that was our official fire ant queen, before remembering
I had actually separated our official queen fire ant with eggs from the bunch the day
I discovered she laid eggs.
But guys, speaking of which, I think it’s time we officially name our fire ant queen
here with brood, shall we?
In last week’s video a lot of you gave some really great name suggestions as to what we
should name her.
So, I’ve chosen my top 5 favourite names, and posted them under the PINNED COMMENT of
this video.
Simply check the replies under the pinned comment, and give a thumbs up on the name
you vote for, and the name with the most number of likes by next week, will be our queen fire
ant’s official name, to be announced in next week’s video.
Thank you, AC Council, for your input!
It’s pretty amazing to see the larvae.
They’re quite cute with their little hairs, known as setae.
It helps the larvae adhere to each other and to surfaces in their environment, like the
test tube walls.
Now I can see from the yellowish colour within their bodies that the larvae have already
been feeding from the queen’s self-made nutritious soup that the queen’s body has
been naturally manufacturing from muscle tissue stores in her back, which used to power her
wings during nuptial flight.
With no more wings now, all those valuable wing muscles can be broken down and used for
nutrition.
This nutritious soup made from the queen's former wing muscles will be enough to nutritionally
sustain the queen and her first generation of young to maturity.
These larvae will pupate and later eclose to become the queen’s first set of workers,
known as nanitics.
These nanitics once they arrive, have a huge responsibility to essentially pioneer the
colony at its infancy.
So much rests on the success of these first larvae, who will become the ultimate determining
factors towards whether or not, this fire ant colony-in-the-making succeeds to grow
into a massive fire ant colony, or whether they fail leading to this colony dying out.
One of the biggest jobs the nanitics will be in charge of will be finding the colony’s
first real meal, because the queen’s self-made nutritious soup that she’s been feeding
them is only just enough to raise the nanitics to maturity, and after that will completely
run out.
Go larvae!
Grow!
You are the queen’s only hope now.
But as for us, all we can do at this stage to help, is keep this fire ant queen in peace
and undisturbed as much as possible.
I placed the test tube into a darkened cupboard where the queen can be free from vibrations
and light, both of which can stress her during this crucial founding period.
But, AC Family, I am totally thrilled that so far, everything is running smoothly, and
it looks like we have a promising fire ant colony, with the nanitics officially arriving
very soon!
Fire ant colonies grow extremely quick so once these nanitics arrive, and they get to
eat their first meal, probably a blob of honey-water, they’ll consume it and feed it to the queen
and growing brood, which will get the colony to truly explode exponentially.
For those of you who followed the growth of my last fire ant colony, the Phoenix Empire,
you know how quickly these ants can go from a cute, little batch of scrawny ants to a
pulsating beastly and stinging horde of millions!
Let’s enjoy that process and watch it all unfold before our very eyes once again with
this new fire ant colony.
Once the nanitics do arrive, I think that will be a great time to give the colony an
official name, but until then leave any name suggestions you might have in the comments.
Thank you all for watching and please do remember to hit the LIKE button as it really helps
a lot, to let youtube know you enjoy these ant videos and that they’re worth sharing
to new audiences, and hit the SUBSCRIBE button to be part of this new and exciting journey,
as we raise this new queen fire ant and her very promising brood, into a powerful fire
ant kingdom to take its place once again as the ultimate ant colony of the channel, just
as their predecessors did in the past.
It seems fire ants, though undoubtedly the most difficult ant species I’ve ever owned,
still always seem to somehow manage to make their way into our ant-loving hearts and burn
a lasting mark into our minds and souls.
It’s always an adventure owning these guys, and I have some epic plans ahead for them
if they do make it to maturity.
But until then, I’ll see you all next week, as we check up on the progress of our beloved
fire ant colony-in-the-making here.
Thank you all for watching and supporting the ants.
It’s ant love forever!
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It's ant love forever!